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Carnal knowledge is anarchaic or legaleuphemism forsexual intercourse.[1] In modern statutes, the term "sexual penetration" is widely used, though with various definitions.
The term derives fromcarnal, meaning "of the flesh", and theBiblical usage of the verbknow/knew, a euphemism for sexual conduct.
One examples of this usage is in the first part of the Bible, theBook of Genesis, which describes howAdam and Eve conceived their first child:
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and boreCain, and said, I have gotten a man with [the help of]Jehovah.
Also in Genesis isLot's plea to the people ofSodom to whom he offered his virgin daughters, in place of his guests:
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.
Some translations translate the Hebrew expression more explicitly, undoing the euphemism for clarity to modern readers; for example, the New International Version translates the Hebrew phrase literally meaning "to know" as "to make love to" in Genesis 4:1,[2] and as "to have sex with" in Genesis 19.[3]
Incriminal law, the term has had different meanings at different times and in differentjurisdictions. While commonly a mere euphemism for sexual intercourse (not necessarily unlawful), different jurisdictions have defined carnal knowledge (as well as sexual intercourse) as a specific sex act such as contact between apenis andvagina, some laws elaborating this to include even "slight penile penetration of femalesex organs." The definition sometimes includes a set of sex acts that includesodomy, while some statutes specifically exclude such acts. Some laws do not define the term, and leave it to the courts to give it meaning, which also allows them to take into account changing community standards.
Carnal knowledge has also sometimes meantsexual intercourse outside of marriage, and sometimes refers to sex with someone under theage of consent. The phrase is often found in this sense in modern legal usage, being equivalent tostatutory rape in some jurisdictions, as the termrape implies lack of consent.
Section 18 of theOffences against the Person Act 1828 reads as follows:
What shall be sufficient Proof of carnal Knowledge in the Four preceding Cases.XVIII. 'And Whereas upon Trials for the Crimes ofBuggery and ofRape, and of carnally abusing Girls under the respective Ages hereinbefore mentioned, Offenders frequently escape by reason of the Difficulty of the Proof which has been required of the Completion of those several Crimes;' for Remedy thereof be it enacted, That it shall not be necessary, in any of those Cases, to prove the actual Emission of Seed to constitute carnal Knowledge, but that the carnal Knowledge shall be deemed complete upon Proof of Penetration only.
The crimes of carnally abusing girls referred to were those created by section 17 of the Act.
In cases decided under this section it was held that the slightest penetration was sufficient.[4]
This section was replaced by section 63 of theOffences against the Person Act 1861. The term was not used in theSexual Offences Act 1956, which replaced it, where it appeared, with the termsexual intercourse, in all the provisions consolidated by that Act. The currentSexual Offences Act 2003 goes further and does not refer to "sexual intercourse", instead describing the physical act explicitly in terms of specific body parts where relevant, and referring to "sexual activity" more generally in other cases.